Male infanticide leads to social monogamy in primates.

Evolution of social monogamy in primates is not consistently associated with male infanticide.

Comparative analyses suggest that monogamous breeding systems evolved in mammals where feeding competition reduces range overlap between breeding females, preventing males from guarding more than one female at a time (1). In contrast, a recent analysis for primates suggests that monogamy evolved as a form of paternal care that reduces the risk of male infanticide (2). Here we reexamine the dist...

Classification Biological Sciences: Evolution Title The evolution of social monogamy in primates is not consistently associated with male infanticide

Monogamy with a purpose.

Humans are fascinated by animal monogamy. In the 1960s, Konrad Lorenz idealized the lifelong pair-bonds of geese until one of his students pointed out some infidelities and suggested that geese may be “only human” (1), and Desmond Morris (2) speculated about the advantages of the pair-bond for early humans. Even though many theories have since been proposed, human monogamous inclinations have a...

Reply to Lukas and Clutton-Brock: Infanticide still drives primate. monogamy.

For many years, it has been variously suggested that the evolution of monogamy in primates was due to paternal care, dispersed female ranging, or infanticide. It was therefore of little surprise to us that we should find that these traits are strongly associated with mating systems in primates (1). The crucial question, however, is whether these traits are potential drivers of, or secondary res...

The evolution of social monogamy in mammals.

The evolution of social monogamy has intrigued biologists for over a century. Here, we show that the ancestral condition for all mammalian groups is of solitary individuals and that social monogamy is derived almost exclusively from this social system. The evolution of social monogamy does not appear to have been associated with a high risk of male infanticide, and paternal care is a consequenc...